This application claims the priority of French Patent Document No. 0103819, filed Mar. 21, 2001, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to equipment enabling a vehicle to manipulate a load such as a dumpster provided with a lifting bar on its front face.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Loadhandling equipment that includes a deformable and tilting handling arm provided at one end with a hook adapted to be interengaged with the lifting bar on the load is known in the art, in particular from patent application FR 2 109 109 A. In a transport position, the handling arm has a front section disposed at the front end of the equipment and oriented vertically or substantially vertically with the hook at the top and a longitudinal section oriented horizontally or substantially horizontally with a first end connected to the base of the front section and a second end adapted to be articulated to the rear of the vehicle about a transverse pivot axis. The longitudinal section is formed by a link having a first end articulated about the transverse rear pivot axis and by a first branch of an angle-bracket, whose second branch forms the front section. The first branch of the angle-bracket has its end opposite the front section articulated to the second end of the link about a transverse intermediate pivot axis. The first branch of the angle-bracket is telescopic and has a deployed position in which its length is a maximum and a retracted position in which its length is a minimum. The first branch is deployed in the transport position mentioned above. In addition to this position, the handling arm can assume:
a putting down on the ground or picking up position, in which the hook is to the rear of the vehicle at a height enabling it to be interengaged with or released from the lifting bar of a load of the type mentioned above, resting on the ground, the movement between the transport position and the putting down on the ground or picking up position being effected initially by the movement of the first branch of the angle-bracket from its deployed position to its retracted position, followed by pivoting of the angle-bracket by a tilting actuator about its articulation with the link, the latter remaining fixed; and
a tipping position, to which the hook moves from the transport position by being pivoted upwardly and rearwardly about the transverse rear pivot axis by the tilting actuator, the arm retaining during this pivoting movement the same configuration as in the transport position.
Also known in the art are variants of the arrangement of the longitudinal section of the arm and the manner in which it is deformed between the transport position and the putting down on the ground or picking up position, in particular as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,948, in which the angle-bracket pivots relative to the link until it reaches a predetermined angle, from which it is abutted against the link, these two members then pivoting together about the transverse rear pivot axis, or as disclosed in patent application FR 2 169 810 A, in which the telescopic first branch of the angle-bracket is replaced by a front end portion of the first branch that can be raised to retract the hook. Some equipment combines an angle-bracket and a link operating as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,948 with an angle-bracket whose first branch is telescopic and/or has an end portion that can be raised, respectively as described in the document FR 2 109 109 A and in the document FR 2 169 810 A.
The invention aims to increase the possibilities of using this kind of equipment without compromising its simple and economic character.
To this end it proposes equipment enabling a vehicle to put down on the ground or to pick up a load such as a dumpster and to tip the load, which has a lifting bar on a front face, the equipment including a deformable and tilting handling arm provided at one end with a hook adapted to interengage with the lifting bar of the load and adapted to assume the following positions:
a transport position in which a front section is disposed at the front end of the equipment and oriented vertically or substantially vertically with the hook at the top and a longitudinal section is disposed to the rear of the front section and oriented horizontally or substantially horizontally with the front end of the longitudinal section connected to the base of the front section;
a putting down on the ground or picking up position in which the hook is to the rear of the vehicle at a height enabling it to be interengaged with or released from the lifting bar of the load resting on the ground; and
a tipping position to which the hook moves from the transport position by being pivoted upwardly and rearwardly by a tilting actuator about a transverse pivot axis situated to the rear of the equipment;
the handling arm including a bracket which has a first branch which forms the front section and a second branch which is part of the longitudinal section and a link which provides the remainder of the longitudinal section, the link being articulated at the front to the second branch of the bracket about a transverse intermediate pivot axis and articulated at the rear about the transverse rear pivot axis, in which equipment:
the means providing articulation of the link about the transverse rear pivot axis are adapted to be released and the means providing the articulation about the transverse intermediate pivot axis are adapted to be locked relative to the vehicle at the location they occupy in the transport position; and
the equipment includes means for pivoting the link upward and forward about the transverse intermediate pivot axis after the means providing articulation of the link about the transverse rear pivot axis are released and the means providing the articulation about the transverse intermediate pivot axis are locked relative to the vehicle.
Pivoting the link in this way lifts the rear end of a load on the equipment, after which the front end of the load can be lifted by pivoting the bracket about the same axis by means of the tilting actuator, so that the equipment according to the invention can move the entire load into a position in which it is at a greater height than that it occupied in the transport position, especially when the load is provided with folding feet for supporting it at that height, as is the case with some dumpsters for agricultural use, for example, the bottom of which includes means for distributing the material contained in the dumpster to fill a tractor trailer placed under the dumpster.
Note that, thanks to the invention, no additional lever or link is needed to raise the rear of the load, the link of the handling arm being used for this purpose.
In accordance with preferred features, the equipment includes a frame adapted to be fixed to the chassis frame of the vehicle and to which the link is articulated about the transverse rear pivot axis.
The means providing the articulation about this axis, which are releasable, are therefore operative between the handling arm and the frame and can therefore be entirely assembled in the manufacturing plant, which offers the advantage that installing the equipment on the vehicle requires only fixing the frame of the equipment to the chassis frame.
Preferably, for reasons of simplicity and convenience of implementation:
the means for pivoting the link include a lifting actuator articulated at one end to the link and at its other end to the frame, and where applicable:
the lifting actuator is articulated to the frame at the front and to the link at the rear.
According to other preferred features the link includes two rollers adapted to support respective longitudinal rails on a righthand side and a lefthand side of a bottom face of the load.
Because these rollers are part of the link, they also pivot about the transverse intermediate pivot axis when lifting the rear of a load.
This offers the advantage, compared to the solution in which the rollers are part of the frame, or more generally fixed, that there is no need for a member for supporting the rear of the load to take over when the link pivots about the transverse intermediate pivot axis.
The transverse rear pivot axis and the transverse axis about which the rollers are articulated are preferably spaced from each other.
The vicinity of the transverse rear pivot axis can therefore remain relatively unimpeded, which simplifies the design of the releasable articulation means.
In a first preferred embodiment the link is entirely part of the longitudinal section with the transverse articulation axis of the rollers which, in the transport position, is situated just in front of the transverse rear pivot axis.
In a second preferred embodiment the link has an angle-iron profile with a first branch that is part of the longitudinal section and a second branch that is articulated at its base to the transverse rear pivot axis and the articulation axis of the rollers is situated at the junction between the first and second branches of the link.
A second aspect of the invention provides a vehicle including equipment as described above.
A third aspect of the invention provides a method of lifting with such a vehicle a load provided with a lifting bar on a front face and with four folding feet, in order to place the load on the feet in a deployed state, a bottom face of the load being then at a greater height than in the transport position, the method including:
a) moving from the transport position to a start or end of tilting position;
b) pivoting the link upward and forward about the transverse intermediate pivot axis;
c) deploying rear feet of the load;
d) pivoting the bracket upward and rearward about the transverse intermediate pivot axis; and
e) deploying front feet of the load.
The disclosure of the invention now continues with the description of one embodiment, which is given hereinafter by way of illustrative and non-limiting example, and with reference to the accompanying drawings.